A blog about dining, cooking, and eating in and around Orange County, California.

Monday, December 09, 2013

That Boba Place - Costa Mesa

If there’s anything that distinguishes That Boba Place from those boba places it’s that this boba place offers popping boba. The difference between these bobas and those bobas? They’re more like gigantic balls of caviar. When you bite into one they don’t chew, they burst, like liquid-filled gel caps.

We opted for it instead of the usual tapioca pearls to inhabit our drinks there a few nights ago, and found them, well, kind of fun. They exist in different fruit-flavors, each one owing its existence to molecular gastronomic processes and an enterprising company that figured out there might be a market for them. That Boba Place charges a mere quarter more to include them in your drink.

Among the choices: ones that explode lychee and strawberry-flavored syrups. The membrane left behind after the bubbles are spent chews like the skin of a pea. It’s frivolous, gimmicky, but hey, so are boba drinks in general.

What’s not? A combo of deep fried chicken and squid, eaten with bamboo skewers and garnished the best thing of all: Thai basil leaves deep fried to papery wisps, the most innovative foodstuff this, that, or the other boba place has contributed to the culinary landscape.